The present disclosure relates generally to portable consumer devices that can be used for event access and delivery of goods or services.
Consumers are typically required to use paper tickets for entry to a specific event, such as a football game or the cinema, for example. Conventional paper tickets present many problems and disadvantages. For example, the use of paper tickets often requires consumers to queue up for tickets (e.g., lines at the will call window). Additionally, consumers need to worry about storing their paper tickets prior to entering the event, which is inconvenient. Conventional tickets can be lost, misplaced, or stolen. When this occurs, the consumer typically has no recourse but to buy new tickets. Furthermore, with conventional tickets, consumers may have to deal with scalpers and the risk of purchasing counterfeit tickets.
Consumers often purchase items while at the event, such as merchandise and concessions, with portable consumer devices. Indeed, merchandise and concessions are an important source of revenue. However, the lines for merchandise and concessions are often long because the event may have thousands of attendees. Extended periods of time spent searching for merchandise and concessions, or waiting in lines at the event, are inconvenient for the consumer and make the experience less enjoyable.
Limited quantities of certain merchandise are available at the event venue leading to the problem of special event merchandise selling out. For example, a concert may be a “one time only” event with limited edition merchandise specific to the event. Merchandise sellers must estimate the quantities of each type of special edition merchandise. In the case of clothing, quantities of clothes for different sizes, colors, and genders must also be estimated. Oftentimes, merchandise in a particular size or color sells out. When merchandise sells out, fans are disappointed, and revenue is lost.
Portable consumer devices, such as payment cards, may be used in lieu of conventional tickets. However, a list or database of credit card numbers (or other sensitive personal or financial information) stored at a venue or, even worse, at every entrance point to a venue may be unsecure. Additionally, the venue operator must be able to differentiate not only between a consumer associated with a payment card or payment account, but the venue operator must be able to differentiate between events to which the consumer is entitled access to, the specific date, time or showing of the event that the consumer is entitled to access, what level of access the consumer is entitled to, and/or whether the consumer pre-purchased any event merchandise or services, etc. This could be accomplished by maintaining a separate list or database of payment card numbers for each specific event. This would have the undesirable consequences of proliferating the availability of sensitive information, increasing the risk of security breaches, and making the entire system complex and unwieldy.
Embodiments of the technology disclosed herein address these and other problems, individually and collectively.